V. I. Lenin

To Members Of

The Council Of Defence

Written:1 February, 1920First Published:First published in 1924; Published according to the manuscriptSource:Lenin’sCollected Works, 4th English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965, Volume 30, page 314Translated:George HannaTranscription/HTML Markup:David Walters & Robert CymbalaCopyleft:V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marx.org) 2002. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of theGNU Free Documentation License

February 1, 1920

The situation on the railways is catastrophic in the
    extreme.The delivery of grain has ceased.Truly urgent
    measures are needed to save the country. In the course of two
    months (February and March) the following measures must be
    effected (and other relevant measures of a similar nature must be
    sought):

I. The personal bread ration to bereducedfor those
    not working on the railways andincreasedfor those
    working on them.

Let more thousands perish but the country will be saved.

II. Three-fourths of the leading executives of all departments,
    except the Commissariats of Food and the Army, to be taken for the
    railways and for repair work for these two months. The work of
    other commissariats to be discontinued (or reduced to one-tenth)
    correspondingly for these two months.

III.Introduce martial lawover an area stretching to
    30-50 verstson either side of the railway line tomobilise labour to clear the line, and transfertothevolosts within that areathree-fourths of all
    high-ranking functionaries of the volost and uyezd executive
    committees of the gubernia concerned.